What a useless day. ::sigh:: Here was my itinerary:

7:30: Packed my stuff up in my car from my week in Lakeside, Ohio.
8:15: Left Lakeside and started on my way to go home, a 10 hour drive
8:16: Continue drive with jamming to energetic music
8:45: Car breaks down
8:46: I laugh hysterically for about 5 minutes
9:30: Tow truck comes to pick me up
10:00: Sit in the waiting room at the mechanic
11:00: Mechanic says it'll be $350-$400 to get my car fixed
11:02: I cry deep inside, thinking of the amount of money I've spent on my car in the past month
1:00: Go get something to eat and coffee
3:00: Sit in the waiting room at the mechanic
6:00: I've been told the car needs yet another part but wont be there till tomorrow morning
6:10: Check into hotel room and do nothing the rest of the night

3 positive things happened though.
-2 gorgeous men on separate occasions had nice conversations with me
-I figured out how to download an old software program that is AWESOME
-I'm doing something I never do, which is watch a full game of basketball- but only because Duke and UNC are playing. GO UNC!!

Lately I've really been thinking about what it means to trust God. There are a million ways to trust Him, but what I'm talking about more specifically is with situations like this...situations that SUCK. Honestly, sometimes I don't like it when bad things happen to Christians and they're too flippin' happy about it, like nothing in the world can bother them. It bothers me because I want them to be bothered! I mean, I want them to show some other emotion besides pure bliss. Be normal, will ya?

Anyhoo... if you know me at all, you know that I can get flustered at situations. I can get mad, I will want to cry if I'm mad enough- like today. I was obviously and rightfully ticked off at this situation.

But then I also got to thinking about Who's taking care of me. Not that I'm invincible with God- not in the least- but I can't ignore it when situations play themselves out a certain way. I think sometimes you have to realize that some not-so-good things happen for a reason, and maybe because much worse things could have happened instead.

For example...
I almost left Lakeside Tuesday. On Tuesday evening, massive tornadoes ripped through the area that I would have been driving through and ~50 people died.

I almost left today at 6 when I thought my car was gonna be done. Sleet, snow, ice and flooding started happening when they told me I couldn't have the part till the next day.

I don't know why my car broke down today. I didn't want it to, and I don't see why I had to stay here all day. Maybe I'll never know, but the point is that I believe God saves us from situations and we don't even know it.

I really like thinking about situations like this! Like... I dunno, you're on your way out the door to work, but your dog pooped in your shoe, so you get all mad and clean it up and put the dog out, but by this time you're late for work, and you go down the road and see an accident a mile down the road, and you're mad that you're stuck in traffic because of your stupid dog and this stupid traffic- but what if circumstances worked themselves out (providence) so that if you had left the minute before you noticed the poo, you would have been in that accident. Ya know?

A very relevant situation for me right now is Slovakia. Doggonnit, I wanna be there now! But it's not gonna happen quite yet. I can't get my way this time. I believe that there is a very specific reason why I am still here, and why I won't be there for X amount of time. Maybe I'll meet someone who will give me a new perspective on something very important, maybe someone will die, maybe I just need to grow up and learn to trust God more before I go. I DON'T KNOW! I surely don't believe it means that I shouldn't go, no way! But as flipping hard as it is, I have to be patient and understand that God has it under control-

He's the ultimate event planner! Think about that!

When I had shared with someone much older and wiser than I that I was having this frustration with wanting to be there and not being able to go yet, he said to me so bluntly, "You know, this is all God's anyway- you're on His time- it's all His. Don't worry about it." Ya know when someone says something so simple at the perfect time it can be so profound?? That was one of those times where it just hit me: It's all God's anyway, this life, my purpose, His calling, so stop worrying.

And I encourage you to look at your current inconvenience as a way to allow God to prove to you that He's in control. Your own plans will fall through, when you want to finish school, when you want to travel, when you want a mate, what job you'd rather have- whatever- start looking at those things in a different light. The expression "hindsight is 20/20" is, in my opinion, something I see with God's providence more than anything else. He's got you covered. When something crappy happens, please, be healthy and react even if it's a negative reaction. Scream in your pillow or kick a cat, I don't care, but at the end of the day don't forget that you can't be angry forever because God's got plans for you that's so much bigger than you can imagine.

How many times have you said to yourself something like, "Ohhh so THAT'S why that happened, and if I had done THIS at that time, then I wouldn't be HERE in life"...it's always when we're on the mountaintops that we praise God, but can we be strong enough to praise Him in the valleys too? Should we only trust the event planner when we're actually trying to plan it our own way behind His back? Certainly not.

I encourage you also to keep me in check with this- remind me of this from time to time because I'm of the flesh and I'll forget. Don't be afraid to get in my face.